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Asheville News Stories for Tuesday July 16, 2007.

A quick stop in Asheville at Thomas Wolfe homeChicago Tribune
ASHEVILLE – Some historic sites leave you cold, where something dusty on the fringe of your memory happened long ago, the narration droned by a grad student.

That's not the case at the Thomas Wolfe House in downtown Asheville. Wolfe was the author born and raised there, whose literary fame rests on four novels -- "Look Homeward, Angel," "Of Time and the River," "The Web and the Rock" and "You Can't Go Home Again" -- and an assortment of short stories. He died in 1938, just shy of his 37th birthday, and has been praised by peers and critics ever since.

Asheville News Stories for Tuesday May 17, 2007.

Smashing Pumpkins to play nine-shows in Asheville Wilmington Star, NC
Asheville | The Smashing Pumpkins have announced they will give nine concerts in Asheville and eight in San Francisco this summer in their first extended-stay performances in more than a decade.
The band will perform at the Orange Peel in Asheville on dates from June 23 to July 5, and at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco on dates from July 22 to Aug. 1, the group announced Monday. Fans attending any of the shows will be allowed to capture the concerts with audio and video recorders, according to the band's Web site.
"They were looking for one West Coast venue and one East Coast venue," Liz Whalen of the Orange Peel told the Asheville Citizen-Times. She said the shows are the biggest event in the club's history and an entertainment milestone for the city in western North Carolina.
Leaders in the early 1990s alternative rock revolution, the Smashing Pumpkins broke up in 2000 after winning two Grammy Awards and selling millions of albums. Band leader Billy Corgan announced about two years ago that he wanted the band to reunite.
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Asheville News Stories for Tuesday March 27, 2007.

Buncombe County businessman facing charges after wreck WCNC (subscription), NC
A former state lottery commissioner and past chairman of the state chamber of commerce faces charges including reckless driving after authorities said he fled the scene of a four-car wreck.
Buncombe County businessman Gordon Myers, 62, who was charged with impaired driving, reckless driving and hit and run, was listed in fair condition Friday at Mission Hospitals.
The State Highway Patrol blames alcohol and Myers's failure to slow down for Tuesday's chain reaction crash involving six people, including a 7- and a 12-year-old girl in a van hit by Myers' SUV
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Honoring the fallenWilmington Morning Star, NC
The names of the fallen are engraved on the rocks in a rambling stone wall in Asheville, N.C. They are etched in black marble at a military club in San Francisco and in black granite at the state Capitol in Salem, Ore. In Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Lafayette, Calif., the Iraq toll is measured in thousands of white crosses.
Running out of space
Veterans for Peace in North Carolina, an anti-war group, helped raise money for the Asheville monument.
"Some of us are still young enough to remember the Vietnam War, and we see this war in Iraq as being very much the same sort of misguided adventure," said past president Ken Ashe, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam.
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Asheville News Stories for Tuesday March 20, 2007.

Boy Scout found alive
McGRADY, North Carolina (CNN) -- Authorities have received a radio report from searchers that a 12-year-old Boy Scout who went missing over the weekend during a camping trip was found Tuesday, a park service ranger said.
"We did have radio traffic come from one of our searchers on the scene saying that young Michael has been found. He is alive," ranger Tina White said. "We're all smiling now."
Footage from the search scene shows a rescuer holding up a walkie-talkie as one of the searchers who discovered the boy declares, "They have found Michael. He is OK."
An official with the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Service said Michael Auberry was found about 1½ miles from the campsite from which he disappeared.
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Most of North Carolina Abnormally Dry; West Suffering Moderate DroughtWRAL.com, NC ASHEVILLE, NC — Drought and abnormally dry conditions were reported across most of North Carolina this month, while the western part of the state suffered from a moderate drought, officials said Monday.
Above average temperatures and below normal precipitation were expected through the end of March, according to weather models from the U.S. Drought Manager. As a result, local water officials asked residents Monday to refrain from burning fallen trees or yard vegetation outside and to conserve water.

Asheville News Stories for Monday March 19, 2007.

No New Clues in Search for Boy Scout lost in Western North CarolinaFOX8 News
WILKES COUNTY, N.C. -- After three days of searching, rescue crews found no trace Monday of a missing 12-year-old boy who disappeared while camping with his Boy Scout troop in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Michael Auberry vanished in the heavily wooded and rugged terrain surrounding the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday after lunch with the other Scouts. Searchers found his mess kit within a mile of the camp site, but no new clues had surfaced Monday, officials said.
Sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s met search crews as they traversed 5-square-miles of rugged terrain, where temperatures dropped overnight into the 20s.
"The temperatures definitely play a factor. It has been very cold at night, but this young man was very well dressed. He had a fleece jacket on and another jacket," National Park Service spokeswoman Tina White said. "We've had people who have been out a week or longer and survived."
About 70 people aided by search dogs and a helicopter began a third day of searching the area's logging roads and trails and scouring rugged off-road regions. Authorities issued an Amber Alert as a precaution Monday in case Michael showed up on a trail or nearby road, though hikers are infrequent in mid-March.
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A look at the second day of the first round of the NCAA tournamentSportingNews.com
The win was the first for a team from the Big South in 16 first-round games. North Carolina-Asheville beat Texas Southern 92-84 in overtime in the opening-round game in 2003, but the league was 0-for-15 in the first round until the Eagles beat the Fighting Irish.
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UNC Asheville Baseball Roars Past Liberty, 9-3
uncabulldogs.com
LYNCHBURG, VA. - Trailing 3-2 after six innings, the UNC Asheville Bulldogs plated three runs in the seventh inning and four more runs in the eighth in a 9-3 victory over the Liberty Flames in Big South Conference action, Sunday afternoon at Worthington Stadium.
The setback evens the Flames' conference mark at 1-1 and drops their overall mark to 13-8 on the year. UNC Asheville moves to 1-1 in the Big South and 6-15 overall.
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Track and Field Opens Season at Charlotte
uncabulldogs.comCHARLOTTE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's and women's track and field team opened the 2007 spring season with some impressive perfomances at the Charlote Invitational this weekend.
Senior Taylor Little sparked the men's squad with a first place finish in the 1500 meters. He took the lead midway through the race and coasted to the victory in a time of 3:53.
"Overall, we had a very good first meet," stated Asheville coach Dean Duncan. "We had some great results and we're only going to get better as the season goes on this year."
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Asheville News Stories for Thursday March 15, 2007.

N.C.-Asheville-LSU PreviewFox Sports
With Bob Starkey taking over for Pokey Chatman, third-seeded LSU begins its attempt for a fourth consecutive Final Four appearance on Saturday night when it meets North Carolina-Asheville in a first-round matchup of the Fresno Regional at Austin, Texas.
Starkey was named coach after Chatman abruptly resigned on March 7 when allegations surfaced that she had improper relations with a former player while that player was still on the team.

Asheville News Stories for Wednesday March 14, 2007.

AVL Council Discusses Park and Race TrackWWNC-AM Asheville
Some say 30 acres of land near McCormick baseball field in Asheville would make an ideal location for a scenic overlook park. But -- they say the city must move swiftly to purchase the land before the owner develops it. The group asked the city for one third of the purchase price, which is 575-thousand dollars. The other two thirds will come from Buncombe County and private donations -- which supporters say they've already raised. City Council Tuesday agreed to vote on the plan at its next meeting.
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Tourney Brackets Announced For Women's Hoops WFSB-TV Hartford
The Tigers will play UNC Asheville on Friday night in Austin, Texas with acting head coach Bob Starkey at the helm. "The kids have done a wonderful job," Starkey ...
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Restaurateurs bet on West EndGreenvilleOnline.com
restaurants that use the Boathouse name - in downtown Charleston, on the Isle of Palms and in Arden, N.C., near Asheville. Crew Carolina also owns a fourth restaurant in Charleston called Carolina's. Batt Humphreys, communications director for ...
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Asheville News Stories for Monday March 12, 2007.

Women's Basketball Selection Party at Wild Wings Monday Night
uncabulldogs.com
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - UNC Asheville's Big South Champion women's basketball team will be at Wild Wings Café on Biltmore Avenue Monday night for the NCAA Selection Show. All fans are welcome to come out and celebrate with the team beginning at 7 p.m. The selection show airs on ESPN at 8 p.m .ET on Monday. Head coach Betsy Blose and her team along with the UNC Asheville athletics staff and fans will arrive around 7 p.m.
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Asheville Band Reigning Sound + Mary Weiss Do Conan Show TuesdayHarp Magazine, MD
The band is also based in HARP’s second favorite city (behind Silver Spring, MD), Asheville, North Carolina, which means it’s about time all you music ...
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Wildfires consume 200 acres, 9 houses WCNC
Nine homes were destroyed and 200 acres were burned by wildfires fueled by dry conditions and windy weather this weekend in western North Carolina, officials said.
No injuries were reported in fires that started around 3 p.m. Sunday in the Grassy Ridge community in Swain County, where a number of vacation cottages are located. Other homes were evacuated and roads blocked.
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Smiths Aerospace to expand, create 200 jobs in AshevilleNews Observer
Smiths Aerospace plans to invest $16 million over the next three years to build a manufacturing plant in Asheville and create 200 jobs, the governor's office announced Monday.
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Tanker driver killed when rig overturnsNews Observer
... no sign of what caused the truck to run off the right side of the road shortly after 5 a.m.. Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times.
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Asheville News Stories for Wednesday March 7, 2007.

UNC Asheville's Baseball Team Again Falls in Ninth at Tulaneuncabulldogs.com
METAIRIE, La. - Brad Emaus hit an RBI-single up the middle to score Anthony Scelfo from second base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth as Tulane defeated UNC Asheville, 6-5, Wednesday evening at Zephyr Field.
With the score knotted 5-5 after eight and half innings, Scelfo drew a one out walk and advanced to second on a hit-and-run groundout by Cat Everett. After an intentional walk to Warren McFadden, Emaus hit a 3-2 pitch from reliever Josh Lett back up the box for the game winner marking the fifth time this season Asheville has lost in its opponents final at bat in the last nine games.
Tulane ran its winning streak to seven to improve to 11-4 on the year. UNC Asheville, meanwhile, dropped its ninth contest in a row to fall to 3-12.
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Like mother, like son for N.C. A&T basketball News & Record
... when I was here." When Rush was a senior at Greensboro Day, he seriously considered attending A&T, but went to UNC Asheville instead. But after two seasons there, he transferred to A&T. Bynum knew the expectations Rush would face. "I was nervous ...
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Mix of drugs, alcohol is fatalNC Mental Hope News
.CANDLER — An adult care home resident died after consuming alcohol and a prescription drug not written out to him, an official with a company offering the man mental health services said Wednesday.
William L. Fries, 49, was found dead in his bed Tuesday at Canterbury Hills Adult Care home, according to a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department report.
Fries got alcohol the night before from another Canterbury Hills resident who was driven to a liquor store by a Cleveland Family Services employee, said Cassandra Gash, manager of the company’s Asheville office. That employee was fired Wednesday, Gash said.
“This is just a tragic, tragic event,” she said. “These consumers are adults, and we walk a fine line. How can we keep these people safe in the community without curtailing their rights as human beings?”
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Asheville News Stories for Tuesday March 6, 2007.

Asheville Arborist Finds Smokies' Heftiest Hemlockam NewYork, New York
GATLINBURG, Tenn. -- An arborist from North Carolina had to climb an eastern hemlock in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to confirm what had been estimated: The Laurel Branch Leviathan is the heftiest hemlock of its kind. The Leviathan, with 1,583 cubic feet of wood, edged out an eastern hemlock in Highlands, N.C., for the title even though it is shorter. The Highlands tree, called Cheoah, stands 158.7 feet tall but has a volume of 1,564 cubic feet of wood.
It took a climb to the top of the Leviathan recently to get the accurate measurements needed. "The only way to really know is to get up there with a measuring tape," said Will Blozan, a professional arborist from Asheville, N.C. He has been working in the park, which is headquartered in Gatlinburg but straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee border, to find and measure the giant eastern hemlocks.

U.S. wildlife service looking for evidence of cougars near AshevilleWinston-Salem Journal (subscription), NC ASHEVILLE - Wildlife officials are trying to determine if any wild Eastern cougars are roaming the mountains in Western North Carolina.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has started its first review of the endangered big cat's status since 1982. The cougar - also known as catamount, puma, panther or mountain lion - was placed on the endangered list in 1973.
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Silly Science, Head Cheese, and the Hairless Vulpes of CarolinaBlog Herald, Australia
Meanwhile, my vowel-less local sci-blogger James Hrynyshyn reports on Witchful thinking: water on the brain, about a dowsing convention in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, New New Age Capital of the New South (was that redundancy over the top? …I can never tell). Anyway, the dowsers claim they can not only find water with their twirly-sticks, but ancestral graves for the local Cherokee as well Of course, those graves are on a little island in Fontana Lake, which was created by a hydropower dam built by the TVA in the 1940s. So maybe it makes some sort of woo sense that dowsers could find graves in the middle of the lake.
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Groups lobby to prevent subdivisionHendersonville Times News, NC
The Henderson County Planning Board should reject a large development next to North Mills River Campground, residents, trout fishermen and campground managers say.
The North and South Mills River Community Club and the Pisgah Chapter of Trout Unlimited are among groups rallying to stop an 86-home subdivision planned for the Big Creek Lodge property.
The groups say the proposal, including plans for a large septic system to serve the homes, could endanger water quality in a popular trout stream and drinking water source. The developer has promised any subdivision would be constructed to protect the environment.
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Bulldogs Sweep Weekly Big South Honorsuncabulldogs.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - UNC Asheville's tandem of Brittany Hendley and Kyla Jones each earned Big South honors on Monday. Hendley has been named the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Player of the Week while Jones was tabbed New Balance Freshman of the Week for games played Feb. 26-March 4.
Hendley, a senior from High Point, N.C., averaged 19.5 points per game to help Asheville close out the regular-season on a three-game winning streak. She got her week started tying her career high with 21 points against Radford on 8-of-10 from the floor and 5-of-6 from downtown. She also dished out a career-high tying seven assists and came up with three boards and a steal in the win against the Highlanders. Three days later against Birmingham-Southern, she connected on 46 percent from the floor, 50 percent from beyond the arc and nailed two free throws as she put in 18 points for the Bulldogs in the win over the Panthers. For the week, she was 14-of-23 (61 percent) from the floor and a blistering 9-of-14 (64 percent) from long range and added nine assists, four boards and four steals for the Bulldogs in the two-game span.
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Pharmacists' role still growingArizona Republic, AZ
A two-year study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., reported that patients benefited when pharmacists monitored adherence to blood pressure prescriptions. In Asheville, N.C., pharmacists are deployed in diabetes monitoring and counseling.
Pharmacists are bright people, and their roles will grow. Pharmacy also has been a great career avenue for women: In 1950, 4 percent of pharmacists were women; today, that figure is 44 percent.
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State approves only one new Duke Energy plantTryon Daily Bulletin, NC
Duke Energy lost a two-year fight to build two coal-fired power plants near Cliffside in southern Rutherford County.
The N.C. Utilities Commission ruled this week that the state’s largest utility failed to prove that it needs both of the 800-megawatt power plants. The commission agreed to allow just one of the plants.
Duke Energy officials have said that building just one plant would not be economical, and they are now reviewing whether to proceed with the plant.
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Asheville News Stories for Monday March 5, 2007.

Chemical fumes sends Asheville students to hospitalWinston-Salem Journal NC
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A vial of odor-causing chemical normally used to repel attackers broke in a high school trash can and sent nearly 50 people to the hospital for treatment of respiratory problems.

The incident at Roberson High School started about 10 a.m. Thursday. The chemical was butyl mercaptan and is used in a rape-deterrent product called Repulse, said Buncombe County schools spokesman Stan Alleyne.
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"We've seen a real crunch over the last 100 days in western North Carolina - they're taking off somewhere between $100 to $125 a head for every 500-pound feeder calf," said John Queen, a Haywood County cattleman who was recently elected as the president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
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Scientists look hurricanes in the eye to forecast powerWilmington Morning Star, NC
In a separate report, meanwhile, other researchers noted additional evidence that global warming has contributed to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The report in Geophysical Research Letters by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the government's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., added detail to studies last year that linked warming and increasingly intense hurricanes. "The data say that the Atlantic has been trending upward in hurricane intensity quite a bit," said lead researcher James Kossin of Wisconsin. That was not true for other oceans, however.
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Talk on native ferns planned at arboretumWinston-Salem Journal, NC
The N.C. Arboretum in Asheville and the French Broad River Garden Club will have Thomas Goforth speak at the annual "Gardening with Distinction" seminar at 1 p.m. Friday in the arboretum. Goforth will speak on "Native Ferns of the Carolinas: Diversity in Nature and For Gardening." Admission is $9, $6 for arboretum society members. Registration is suggested and can be made by calling 828-665-2492 or visiting www.ncarboretum.org.
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High Point Set to Host Winthrop in Regular Season FinaleHPU Panthers, NC
HPU is looking to hold on to its #1 seed heading into next week’s conference tournament, hosted by UNC Asheville.
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